Search

After pancake day, PRs have another great opportunity to impress the press with quirky products, services and campaigns that promote love, hearts, flowers and… car insurance. Most Valentine’s Day campaigns are PR fluff and all are wholly unnecessary. But, as long as they’re limited to just 24 hours we can learn to live with it.

Here’s a round up of some of my favourite ‘roses are red’ digital and social media campaigns that have stood out for all the right reasons this month:

With recent research revealing that 92% of couples will stay in this Valentine’s Day, it makes perfect sense to offer consumers something a bit different. It’s cheesier than M&S and Waitrose’s ‘dine in’ offers (excuse the pun) but gets away with it. What’s more, I imagine this slight change in shape is cost effective and is something that would’ve worked well in the UK.

Hello sweetieM&S is putting the power in its Facebook fans’ hands to help decide what the new heart-shaped Percy Pig sweet will look like. It’s even gone to the effort of devising a back story to support the campaign – Percy and his sow Penny are moving in together. The vote closes tonight and the new edition will be in packs from June.

Making loyal customers part of the decision process generates instant ‘buy-in’ and creates insight and content for brands to use going forward e.g what they liked and why.

Is that your best chat up line?
My agency launched a ‘quick and dirty’ Facebook competition today for Lyons Coffee asking fans to share their best coffee-related chat up line to win some beverages for their loved ones.

Facebook continues to offer brands the opportunity to engage with a ‘switched on’ community and reach thousands in minutes.

My favourite chat up line is: “Have you bean here before?”

A lifetime of chocolate
Pudding brand Gü has also been offering one lucky couple, through its Twitter page, the chance to win a lifetime’s supply of product.

An easy mechanic coupled with an appealing prize makes for instant brand awareness. However, I’m sure I could challenge their terms and conditions. I like chocolate. A lot.

You cheeky frog
Finally, movie download company blinkbox has teamed up with popcorn manufacturer Cheeky Frog to produce the world’s first aphrodisiac-flavoured popcorn. (Limited edition of course, because that type of love just can’t last forever.)

So, there you have it. But what do these campaigns all have in common? They’re food related. Why? Because I gave up chocolate for Lent and I have to get my fix somehow. Can’t eat it, so will write about it.

Send me your Valentine’s Day campaign spots and I’ll add them to the hall of fame.